L.A. School Schedules: Exploring the Options

Year-round sessions or staggered schedules? After debating 15 possible solutions to an impending shortage of 55,000 classroom seats, the Los Angeles school board has focused on those two major approaches. Converting the district’s 618 schools to year-round operation or placing schools on double, triple or quadruple sessions--the essence of the staggered method--could yield thousands of additional seats and eliminate the enormous expense of building enough new schools to accommodate the burgeoning enrollment. On Jan. 6, the board asked district staff to draw up various plans using year-round school, staggered schedules and several other options. This article addresses some basic questions parents may have about the main proposals.

Q: When is the board going to make a final decision?

A: Not until the end of February. The staff has been asked to devise several alternative plans to present to the board by the first week of February. It will take the board most of next month to review them.

One plan might feature year-round sessions districtwide, plus other options, such as a new integration formula that defines an integrated school as one that is 70% minority and 30% white. An alternative plan might combine staggered sessions at the secondary level with year-round sessions at the elementary level. The board has ordered the staff to draw up at least one plan that does not include year-round sessions.

Q: Year-round school appears to have strong support on the board. How would it work?

A: Year-round school does not mean that students are in class all year. Students are in school the same amount of time in a year-round schedule as students in traditional two-semester schools. What distinguishes a year-round program is that school buildings are in continuous use, by alternating groups of students.

In general, a year-round program divides a student body into several groups or “tracks” that attend school and have vacations at different times of the year, which means that many students do not have the summer off.

Q: District officials have talked about all kinds of year-round calendars. What calendars are being considered, and how do they differ?

A: Five calendars are being used in the district’s 93 year-round schools. Students are in class for roughly 45, 60 or 90 days and on vacation for 15, 20 or 30 days. A variation of the year-round schedule has students in school for 16 weeks and off for eight weeks.

In the existing year-round schools, the only break shared by the entire school comes during one or two weeks in the winter. In addition, the calendars require from 5 to 15 teachers to change classrooms when they return from vacation.

The superintendent’s staff and some board members are leaning toward a different calendar--called the five-term system--because it appears to solve many of the problems raised by the other schedules and, according to staff reports, offers some other advantages.

Q: How would the five-term year work?

A: This calendar divides the school year into five nine-week terms. Each group of students would attend school four terms with one term off. All students would have breaks for three weeks in summer, two weeks in winter and three days in spring, allowing custodians time to clean and repair the facilities when no students are around. In addition, the same holidays observed in the traditional school calendar would be retained in the five-term plan, which is not the case under some year-round calendars.

There would be no overlapping terms, and only three or four teachers would be “rovers” without a permanent classroom.

Q: Is nine weeks enough time for a child to master a subject?

A: According to district staff, a year-round program does not mean that a student must master a semester course in less time. It does require that the time be divided differently, perhaps into quarters. One possibility is that more difficult courses, like math and English, will be taught over two terms, with a mid-term mark at the end of the first nine-week sequence and a final mark at the end of the second. School officials say that is not very different from what many teachers on the traditional calendar do. Another possibility is scheduling a double period for those courses, enabling teachers to give a full-semester course in one term. District officials say, however, that both approaches have some drawbacks.

Q: Would year-round school damage a lot of extracurricular activities? For instance, how could a school have a football game if one-third of the team is on vacation?

A: Band and some minor sports, like cross-country, have experienced some drop-off, according to year-round-school administrators. For the most part, however, students on vacation are willing to return to school to participate in after-school activities, administrators said. In some cases, particularly the major sports, students say they benefit because they can concentrate on the activity without worrying about homework. District athletic rules that would have prohibited students from competing, such as the requirement that a player be in class a certain number of hours on a game day, have been amended.

Q: What are some advantages of year-round school?

A: According to supporters, the chief attraction of a year-round program is that it could provide as many as 154,000 additional seats more quickly and cheaply than if the district tried to build enough new schools to satisfy the next five years’ demand. Proponents also argue that the traditional two-semester school year, conceived at a time when children needed summers off to help harvest crops, is out-dated. Because we no longer live in an agrarian society, year-round supporters say, there is no reason why children cannot go to school in the summer.

In addition, depending on which calendar is used, proponents say a year-round program could enhance opportunities to take enrichment and remedial courses. Students would be allowed to return to school during their vacation term to make up a class or take an accelerated course, instead of waiting until summer. District officials say this aspect of the year-round approach has the potential of preventing dropouts.

Moreover, parents and administrators familiar with year-round school say students looking for jobs suffer no disadvantages. Students attending classes during the summer cannot get full-time summer jobs, but students with winter or spring vacations have found that they have no difficulty finding employment. Many employers in the southeast part of the district, where schools have been year-round for several years, say they have benefitted from being able to hire students at different times of year.

Q: What disadvantages does year-round school pose?

A: Parents say the major problems are that it will disrupt family vacations, especially if there are several children in the family who are not on the same school schedule, and that it will cause children attending classes in the summer to swelter in hot classrooms.

Officials say that vacations may require more advance planning but note that, under the proposed five-term model, everyone would get three weeks off in summer. Also, the district has promised to keep all the children in one family on the same schedule, although officials say they can do that only if the board adopts a uniform calendar for the entire district.

As for the heat, the board has pledged to try to air-condition classrooms before they are used year-round. The installation process takes an average of two years, however, and district officials say they may not have that much time. It would cost $290 million to install equipment in all the classrooms and the district does not have the money.

A year-round program may also make it hard for some students to take summer enrichment courses offered by local colleges and universities. District officials say that with sufficient notice and planning, selected students may request a schedule that frees them during the summer months.

It is not clear how high school seniors applying to colleges would be affected. The school year ends about two weeks later in the year-round system than on a traditional calendar, delaying the issuance of final grades. A district staff member who met with admissions directors of several local public and private institutions said they were willing to consider mid-term grades as a measure of a student’s achievement.

Q: How would a staggered schedule work, as opposed to the year-round system?

A: On a staggered schedule, students would be divided into groups that start and finish the school day at different times. Under one plan, a student body would be divided into four groups. Group A would start at 7 a.m. and leave at 2:20 p.m., groups B and C would start at 8:20 a.m. and leave at 3:20 p.m. and group D would start at 10:20 a.m. and leave at 5:20 p.m. Sessions would overlap at mid-day.

The board is interested in using this plan only at junior and senior high schools because school board members fear that it would be too fatiguing for elementary school children.

Q: What are the disadvantages of staggering schedules?

A: The district used double sessions in the 1960s and 1970s, when high schools in the southeast part of the district became overcrowded, and eventually abandoned them in favor of a year-round program. One shift ran from 7 a.m. to 2:20 p.m., and the second commenced at 12:20 p.m. and ended at 7:40 p.m.

According to officials, there were too many students on campus at midday, when the sessions overlapped, causing supervision problems. Also, parents and administrators were concerned about students going to and from school in the dark and about the ability of students to concentrate in late-afternoon sessions. Truancy rose during the early mornings and late afternoons.

The staggered schedules would, however, preserve the traditional summer break and would not require massive air-conditioning. It could provide at least as many seats as a year-round program. West San Fernando Valley board member David Armor, who strongly prefers the staggered schedule, said that many existing year-round schools could return to a traditional calendar if staggered sessions are employed.

SCHOOL SCHEDULE COMPARISON

YEAR-ROUND SCHOOL Seats Gained: From 20% to 33%, depending on calendar used.

Cost: $290 million for air conditioning; annual additional operating costs of $86,000 per elementary, $216,000 per junior high, $256,000 per senior high.

Advantages: Costs less overall than building enough new schools. Provides more opportunities for enrichment and remediation sessions during vacation tracks. Fewer students competing for jobs during summer. Year-round employment for teachers.

Disadvantages: Many students in summer sessions won’t have air-conditioned classrooms. Family vacation patterns may be disrupted. Terms may be too short. Additional counseling needed to prevent problems in college applications and scheduling of courses and standardized tests.

STAGGERED SCHEDULE

Seats Gained: From 33% to 90% more junior and senior high seats, depending on schedule. Board does not want to employ staggered schedules on the elementary level.

Cost: About the same general operating costs as year-round.

Advantages: Would retain traditional two-semester calendar with summer off. Would not require additional cost of air conditioning. May allow current year-round schools to return to traditional calendar.

Disadvantages: Too many students on campus at midday. Many students going to and from school in dark. More teachers without permanent classrooms. Cannot be used on elementary level.